not were walking in the light of the fire which they had kindled. Equally observable with the difference between the characters and circumstances of these two descriptions of persons, is the difference between the issues to which matters would be brought with them. For the former are exhorted to trust in the name of the Lord, and to stay upon their God: but, to the latter, it is said, "This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow.".

Now, at what period of time did the friends and enemies of the Messiah feel the very strong emotions of grief and joy, which the prophet here ascribes to them? Was it not at that period, during which the Lord Jesus endured those sufferings, which Isaiah, in this chapter, so affectingly describes? A period of heart-rending grief, and deep distress, to the disciples; but of blind, unhallowed exul

IN the tenth and eleventh verses of this chapter, the prophet addresses two different classes of persons, who seem to be pointed out as the friends, and the enemies, of the Mes-tation to the unbelieving Jews. siah. The one class is repre- Referring to the same period, sented as fearing Jehovah, and (that from his last sufferings to obeying the voice of his servant, the morning of his resurrection,) namely, of Jesus, who "took Jesus himself informs the disupon him the form of a servant," ciples, beforehand, what imand whose character and suffer-pressions the approaching event ings are described in this chapter. The other class sustains a very different character: refusing to obey the voice of the Messiah, who was the light of the world, they kindle a fire of their own, and compass them-shall weep and lament, but the selves about with its sparks. The circumstances of each description of persons differed as much as their characters: they who feared Jehovah walked in darkness, and had no light; whilst those who feared him

of his death would produce on them, and on the world, and what would be the subsequent impression, produced by the joyful and almost unexpected event of his resurrection. "Ye

world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy." Thus, sorrowing and weeping for their Lord and master, crucified by wicked men, the disciples walked in darkness, and

had no light. The Jews, onspired writer is describing the

the contrary, and their rulers, exulted in the success of their schemes, against the life of Christ. Thus they walked in the light of their fire, and compassed themselves about with sparks. But the triumph of the wicked is short. He who sat in the heavens laughed at them: Jehovah held them in derision: he saw the day fast approaching, in which they should lie down in sorrow.

In the language of scripture, light denotes prosperity, or enjoyment; darkness denotes adversity, or suffering. And, as prosperity is of two kinds, spiritual and temporal, so light sometimes signifies the enjoyment of spiritual, sometimes of temporal prosperity. Now, since the righteous may be prosperous in spiritual things, while they are much afflicted in their outward circumstances, they are, in such cases, represented as enjoying light in darkness, Micah, vii. 8. Their souls have comfortable fellowship with God, and a firm reliance on his mercy, amidst the gloom and tempest of temporal vicissitude. The wicked, on the contrary, may be living in the light of temporal prosperity, but they are far from God, and, therefore, walk in darkness, as to spiritual things.

spiritually blind and wretched condition of the ungodly, how should we pervert his meaning, were we to insist, that nothing more was meant, than that ungodly men were involved in the evils of the present life! But if, under the same metaphor of darkness, the scriptures represent the temporal afflictions of the righteous, how preposterous to understand the metaphor, in this case, as describing a state of spiritual darkness! Yet this is sometimes done. Job is frequently supposed to lament the loss of spiritual comfort, when he evidently laments the loss of his children, and of all earthly comforts, in these pathetic words: "Oh, that I were as in months past; in the days when God preserved me; when his candle shined upon my head; and when, by his light, I walked through darkness," Job, xxix. 2, 3. Much anguish and trouble of mind did that good man suffer; but he knew that his Redeemer lived. Job had not forsaken that God who afflicted him; nor did God forsake his soul.

After examining the scriptures, with some degree of attention, in order to ascertain the various meanings which the word darkness is employed to express, I could not find one passage, in which it denotes the Now, as the terms light and spiritual condition of righteous darkness refer either to the spi-persons, as being destitute of ritual or temporal condition of any comfortable assurance of men, it is necessary to inquire the favour of God towards which of these conditions is them. The comfort conveyed meant by either of these terms, to such as do not enjoy a sense in the various passages in which of the presence of God, by the it may occur. If, under the misapplication of scripture, is metaphor of darkness, an in- not likely to be either solid or

VOL. VII,

2 U

lasting. And it is, too often, by an incorrect representation of the spiritual condition of Job, and other saints of ancient times, that such are now comforted.*

ployed to shew the blindness
and uncertainty of sinners, rela-
tive to the condition of their
souls, is also employed to de-
note the uncertainty of the
saints, in trouble, as to the end
of their suffering, or the means
of deliverance. But, blind as
they are, with respect to the
future, and the way which winds
unseen before them, they know
well that God is with them.
Dark, indeed, is their way, but
the Lord is their guide.
"And
I will bring the blind by a way
that they know not; I will lead
them in paths that they have
not known: I will make dark-

The phrase, then, "walking in darkness," as descriptive of the spiritual condition of men, is applicable only to the wicked, who are unenlightened, unregenerated, unjustified. They are under the power, and belong to the kingdom of darkness, out of which believers have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of God, which is a kingdom of light, and its subjects are the chil-ness light before them, and dren of the light, and of the crooked things straight. Those day: "We are not of the night, things will I do unto them, and nor of darkness." But the not forsake them." wicked are in darkness: being spiritually blind, they are not only in a wretched condition, but ignorant of that condition. This, indeed, is darkness; but it is the darkness of ungodly men; darkness, in which they love to remain, because their deeds are evil, and they love to sin. "He that walketh in darkness," says the true witness, speaking of unbelievers, "knoweth not whither he goeth," John, xii. 35.

It is, perhaps, not unworthy of remark, that the same kind of phraseology which is em

In the passage before us, the application of which, to the disciples of Jesus, as a body, will, we presume, be admitted, there seems scarcely any room to doubt that their perplexity, respecting the event of Christ's death, is meant. Their condition, while he remained with them, was free from heavy and severe trials. Attention to fasting, and the other severer observances of religion, were unsuitable to the pleasureable emotions they were accustomed to indulge. But, when Jesus intimated, that the time was

In one of the periodical publications of the present day, I observed, with some degree of surprize, that, to prove the spiritual darkness and despondency of the primitive believers, the following passage was quoted: Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now, for a season, (if need be,) ye are in heaviness, through manifold temptations," 1 Pet. i. 6. These words, taken in their plain, unperverted sense, shew how the saints, in their heavy trials and afflictions, were enabled to rejoice in the lively hope of the heavenly inheritance; and yet the passage is quoted as a proof of their want of spiritual joy and strength!! Were not such perversions of scripture common, on every subject, they might seem incredible.

now at hand, in which he should | of the weakness of our nature, be taken away from them, their and our need of divine illumina grief was inexpressible. The tion and support! How easily cruel and seemingly-disastrous are our boasted strength and event of his death, overwhelm- courage overcome! Our varied them in the deepest sorrow. ous passions and interests obDark as the tomb, in which the scure our perception of the Lord lay, was now the bright oracles of God. If our hopes, and transporting hope, they however inconsistent with the were wont to entertain, of the ways of God, are not fulfilled deliverance of Israel. When in a way agreeable to our apthe sword of Jehovah awoke prehensions of things, we laagainst the shepherd, the timo- ment our case as desperate. rous sheep were scattered" Is his mercy clean gone for abroad. "Then all the disci- ever? Has he forgotten to be ples forsook him, and fled.”

gracious?" It is good if we can then add, as the Psalmist did, "This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old."

Hence, the darkness in which the disciples walked, did not consist of doubts of their own individual salvation, but of grief and painful uncertainty respecting the event of Christ's death, and the deliverance of Israel, Luke, xxiv. 17, &c. It was overwhelming to their holy souls, that the glorious career of Jesus, "mighty in word and deed before God, and all the people," should terminate in a death of unexampled cruelty, suffering, and shame. With repect to all the bright and pleasing remembrances and anticipations, in which they had lately exulted, "Crying, Hosanna to the son of David," their sun now appeared to have set; they, therefore, walked in dark-darkness, and having no light, ness, and had no brightness.

This gloomy apprehension of things arose from their slowness to believe Moses and the prophets, and their misunderstanding and forgetfulness of what Christ himself had so often told them, relative to his death and resurrection. What an affecting view does this present to us

It is plain to the understanding, and well known to the experience of every true believer, that, in the darkness and solicitude of affliction, we may trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon our God. "When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light unto me."" Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken." But it is impossible to conceive, how any one, who, in relation to spiritual things, is walking in

should be able, in that case, to trust in the name of the Lord. Or, is that man in spiritual darkness, without any light, who knows so much of Jehovah, as to fear him; of Jesus, as to obey his voice; of saving mercy, as to trust in it; of divine faithfulness, as to rest upon it. It is, surely, one thing to in

struct a timorous and afflicted disciple, or a self-condemned, unhappy sinner, to trust in the exercise of divine power and goodness, and quite another to suppose that any will do so while the light of life is excluded from the mind.

the frame and feelings of their
minds, did not affect their safe-
ty, or prevent the acceptance
of their prayers, at the throne
of God.
« Comfort ye, com-

concerning their own safety? Ought not the enfeebling and depressing nature of such bodily distemper, to be explained to them? Ought they not to be assured, on the authority of God, (who cannot lie,) of the grace and faithfulness of their A dying child, a young disci- | Lord and Saviour, who forsakes ple of the Lord Jesus, who not the poor, the humble, the made much use of his Bible, in afflicted? They would then his last affliction, often sur-trust in the Lord, and stay upon prised, and even instructed, his their God. They would rest friends, by his lively, pertinent assured, that the vicissitude of observations on passages which health, and the vicissitude of struck him. Having once come to the passage we are now con- | sidering, he exclaimed, "How can those, who walk in darkness, and have no spiritual light, trust in the name of the Lord? It is impossible they can trust in the name of the Lord, if they have no light." Not inclining to follow the passage further, this interesting young disciple rejected, as contradictory and inadmissible, the too common view of it, which would teach us, that men, in-ever a man soweth, that shall volved in spiritual darkness, he also reap." Who shall bless? without any light, can, notwith- Who shall comfort him, whom standing, in that very state, rely, God does not bless and come fort? "Draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded."

with entire satisfaction and confidence, on God; for such is the reliance, which these words of the prophet enjoin.

fort ye, my people, saith your God."

But, if you are living in se cret sin, you have lost your peace with God, if, indeed, you ever enjoyed true peace. In vain will you look to men for comfort. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked. Whatso

If, as sometimes happens to the saints, the want of spiritual Though we do not see, joy and consolation arises from through a dark, a tedious, and a feeble state of health, à dis-stormy night of trouble, the eased state of the nervous sys-harmony and happy termination tem, how distressing for them to be told, that they are suffermg under the hiding of God's face. Does not this tend to produce a servile dread of God, and a needless apprehension

of God's unfailing purpose, let us not be dismayed. Let us not readily yield to the suggestions of unbelief, or be soon overcome by emotions of despair. And let it never be, that